Homemade French Macrons/ Macroons

Every time I go to my local super market, I have a habit of visiting the bakery and stare at it. YES, they have a bakery inside the market. You just can’t help. The smell is amazing that I end up bringing few yummies home every time I go there. I don’t mind spending some extra time at the bakery watching workers bake bread, decorate cakes, and all the little things happening inside. Couple of times they caught me staring at the bakery, and asked if I need a help. Well that made me little embarrassed but we all have little things that we get so excited just to watch things happening. Don’t we? I choose my joy over a little embarrassment. They have the best organic rosemary bread, which is our family favorite. I mean my 18-month-old little son loves it too.

Whenever I go to the bakery, I see these cute little boxes with tiny cookies in it. I was curious about it for a while, and heard they are amazing. I swear I have never had them before until my husband brought me some on my last birthday. To be honest I ate most of them, and fell in love with them. These cookies, call macrons/macaroons are expensive. I love baking anyway I thought I should give them a try. Although I heard it’s hard to make, I was stubborn about it. After failing one time, finally I found the perfect way to make macrons. I have some tips that I love to share with you to get the perfect cookies. Now whenever I want macrons, I can bake them at home which is amazing . If you love macrons as I do, give this a try. Let me know if you try them and how it goes.

What is your favorite cookies or sweets that you love. I would love to know and try them too.

Enjoy!

You will need :

71g Almond meal/almond flour

117g confectionery sugar

2 room temperature egg whites

53g granulated sugar

Gel food coloring

Tip 1:

Use a digital scale or most accurate way that you have to measure all the ingredients. It is very important to measure and get the right measurements.

Tip 2:

Make sure all the bowls and utensils you use are very clean. Macrons are very sensitive. We have to give so much care while you making them.

Let’s make them:

Process the almond meal and confectionery sugar in a food processor about a minute.

Sift processes almond meal and confectionery sugar mixture using a fine sifts to get a fine texture.

Gently stir the mixture to a bowl or to a clean parchment paper until you left with two tablespoon on the strainer. Once you get 2 tablespoons or under, discard the rest.

Cookie batter:

Put the two egg whites (room temperature) in to a bowl.

Add little bit of granulated sugar (about a teaspoon or so), and before you mix them using hand mixer or machine, give it a nice whisk.

Tip 3:

Bring the eggs to room temperature before start making the cookies. Cold egg whites don’t give much volume as room temperature eggs. If you forgot to do that, or you are in a hurry, at least put the eggs in a bowl of warm water to get them to room temperature.

Start to beat the egg whites using a stand mixer or beater in a medium speed for two minutes.

Add sugar gradually as beating.

Tip 4:

Time is very important in this process. We don’t want to ruin the mixer, so set your timer for two minutes as you start to mix them.

Increase the speed to medium high and mix for another two minutes. (Set the timer for another two minutes.)

Increase the speed to high for the last two minutes. ( Set your timer for the last two minutes.)

Altogether, it should be six minutes.

At this point, you can add color to your cookie batter if you want, or you can just leave it. For me I like colorful cookies so I added two drops of gel color.

Tip 5:

Don’t use liquid food coloring. Use good gel food coloring. Liquid coloring is too liquidy. It can change the structure of the batter, and end up with something you don’t want.

Tip 6:

The color tends to fade in the oven. Keep that in your mind when you add the coloring. Use little bit more if you want exact color but don’t put more than 3 drops.

Make sure to drop the coloring while the machine is off.

Mix the food coloring using mixture for thirty seconds on high speed until it gets stiff peak. Stiff peak means the batter should not move when you turn the bowl upside down. (Be careful you don’t want batter to end up on your head :))

Tip 7:

After mixing the coloring for thirty seconds, turn off the machine. Give the batter a good stir, and see if the beak shape on the wire whip is moving or solid. If it is solid, it’s good. If it still moving or fold down, mix extra few seconds until it gets solid. Keep your eye on this step. The last thing you want is over mixed or under mixed batter.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees.

Add the almond mixture to the cookie batter, and start mixing it with a spatula.

Fold the mixture to the side, and then scrap around the side. Continue to do the same pattern for thirty five times. Yes only thity five times. Then You are done.over mixing gives you a runny cookies, and under mixing gives you a lumpy cookies.After thirty five times, you will see your mixer is thick but it is still moving. That is what you want.Not too thin or too thick.

Put the mixture into a plastic bag with a round nozzle in it. (I used size 10)

Tip 8:

I used a big mason jar to put the plastic bag without cutting the tip yet to avoid the mess. Then fill the mixture in. You can use even a big glass to hold the plastic bag. Then twist the end of the bag, and put a hair band to make it tight.

Tip 9:

I draw little circles on a separate paper one inch apart from each other to go under parchment paper as a guide.

Use bit from the mixture to stick the four corners of the parchment paper to stop moving while you piping the cookie mixture.

Cut the tip of the plastic bag, and Pipe the mixture on to the parchment paper. To get a round shape, make sure to pipe as round as possible.

Once you done, tap the baking pan against the counter two to three times to get rid of any air bubbles.If you see any air bubbles on the cookie, give a little pinch using a tooth pick.

Let them sit on the counter for 15 minutes. Then put right in the oven.

Tip 10:

After fifteen minutes, slowly tap in to the raw cookies , they will no longer sticky. That is how you know they are ready to go in to the oven.

Rotate them half way through in the oven to get evenly baked cookies.

Let them bake for eleven minutes. Set the timer for eleven minutes.

Nice ruffle around the cookies and risen nicely means cookies are done. Get them out.

If you feel it’s still not done, let them sit there for one more minute but no more than that.

Once you get them out do’t touch or try to move them. They are very fragile. Let them sit until they completely cool down.

When they are cool down, you can release them gently with a little spatula.

There you have your tiny macrons.

Finally the fun part…

You get to fill them with whatever the filling you want, and make that little cookie burger.